Abstract

How approach the assignment of a consideration of the problem of helminthic infection as the cause of disability and disease in the tropics? One cannot help but reflect, if this symposial Year of the Worm were in session three or four decades ago, how stirring would have been the picture. Spurred and assisted by a far-sighted philanthropic organization, health departments of states and countries in a broad band across the tropical and sub-tropical world were engaged in a great stir-up to eradicate the evils of hookworm disease and suppress hookworm infection. The push against hookworm—certainly man's worst and most insidious helminthic pathogen—also caught up in its action a degree of relief from the concomitant ascaris and whipworm, which so much parallel its distribution and complicate its damage. Be it remembered that these three—hookworm, ascaris, and trichuris—account for almost ¾ of all the helminthic infections of mankind.

But this is now three or four decades later. The great push tapered off.